Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Improving Decisions
with Marketing
Information
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002220 Chapter 8
Equally important, the typeof information available is changing dramatically. As
recently as 1995, most marketing managers with information needs relied on
computers mainly for number crunching. The multimedia revolution in computing
has quickly lifted that limitation. Now it doesn’t matter whether marketing infor-
mation takes the form of a marketing plan, report, memo, spreadsheet, database,
presentation, photo, graphic, or table of statistics. It is all being created on com-
puter. So it can be easily stored and accessed by computer. Moreover, programs exist
to help find whatever information is available—even if it is “lost” on the computer
hard drive of a manager in an office across the ocean. When we talk about a data-
base of marketing information, keep in mind that it may include all types of
information, not just numbers.We covered some of the important ways that the Internet is making more infor-
mation available and changing marketing. In addition, many firms, even very small
ones, have their own intranet—a system for linking computers within a company.
An intranet works like the Internet. However, to maintain security, access to web-
sites on an intranet is usually limited to employees. Even so, information is available
on demand. Further, it’s a simple matter to “publish” new information to a website
as it becomes available. So, information can be constantly updated. Prior to this
decade managers could only dream about this sort of capability.
Information technology is expanding what an MIS can do and how well it works.
Even so, you seldom have all the information you need. Both customers and com-
petitors can be unpredictable. Getting the precise information you want may cost
too much or take too long. For example, data on international markets is often
incomplete, outdated, or difficult to obtain. So a manager often must decide what
information is really critical and how to get it.Computers are getting easier to use, but setting up and supporting an MIS still
requires technical skill. In fact, converting an existing MIS to take advantage of
Internet capabilities can be a real challenge. So in some companies, an MIS is set
up by a person or group that provides alldepartments in the firm with information
technology support. Or it may be set up by marketing specialists.
These specialists are important, but the marketing manager should play an impor-
tant role, too. Marketing managers may not know in advance exactly what questions
they will have or when. But they do know what data they’ve routinely used or
needed in the past. They can also foresee what types of data might be useful. They
should communicate these needs to the specialists so the information will be there
when they want it and in the form they want it.An MIS system organizes incoming information into a data warehouse—a place
where databases are stored so that they are available when needed. You can think
of a data warehouse as a sort of electronic library, where all of the information is
indexed extremely well. Firms with an MIS often have information technology spe-
cialists who help managers get specialized reports and output from the warehouse.
However, to get better decisions, most MIS systems now provide marketing man-
agers with a decision support system. A decision support system (DSS)is a computer
program that makes it easy for a marketing manager to get and use information as
he or she is making decisions.
A decision support system usually involves some sort of search engine—a com-
puter program that helps a marketing manager find information that is needed.
Often, the manager provides a word or phrase to guide the search. For example, a
manager who wants sales data for the previous week or day might search for any
database or computer file that references the term unit salesas well as the relevant
data. The search engine would identify any files where that term appeared. If there
were many, the manager could narrow the search further (say by specifying theAn intranet is easy
to update
Marketing managers
must help develop
an MIS
Decision support
systems put managers
online